1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to managing image data (or images) associated with a media program or media asset record in a terminal device (e.g., a set-top box), and more particularly to methods and systems for pre-fetch images from a server (e.g., a video-on-demand server) to enable users to browse an electronic media program catalog list on a terminal device. Each record in the catalog list has an image associated with. Only predicative pre-fetched images are stored in the image windowing cache on the terminal device.
2. Description of the Related Art
The Internet is a rapidly growing communication network of interconnected computers around the world and is penetrating into every household in the United States and many other countries in the world. Together, these millions of connected computers form a vast repository of multimedia information that is readily accessible by users through any of the connected computers from anywhere at anytime. Multimedia information that is commonly available and deliverable via the Internet may include text information, images and graphics, video and audio, and alike.
Continuous media information such as video and audio contents has become one of the most demanded resources over the Internet. Delivery of such information over the Internet provides many advantages and benefits that cannot be matched by current terrestrial (over-the-air), cable or satellite television systems. Given the vast accessibility of the Internet to the general population, many Internet service providers or Internet content providers are starting to broadcast continuous media programs over the Internet. In addition to the scheduled broadcast programs, some of the premium media programs (e.g., movies, videos, premium sports events, etc.) are delivered to a subscriber or user on demand. The subscriber or user usually orders these on-demand media programs via an electronic catalog list that can be displayed (e.g., showing a menu list on a television connecting to a set-top box or computer monitor) and interacted (e.g., browsing with a remote control, a mouse, or a touch screen interface).
The set-top box is generally a terminal device or a computer. When the application generates an electronic media programs catalog list on the set-top box, a number of computing resources (e.g., storage space such as memory and disk) are required. A media program may be a video, a movie, a game and alike. A database contains all information related to the available media programs must be stored. The information for each media program includes a text based record and a graphical image in general. The text data contains a title and a brief description. The image data graphically depicts the media program. One method is to store all of the information on the terminal device, so the application can access these data locally. Due to the cost consideration, many of the set-top boxes carry very small amount of the storage. Some do not have any hard disk space. Hence, this method is not practice when the set-top box has very little storage space.
Another method is to store all data on the server. The problem with this method is that the application needs to access the data remotely via a data network all the time. As a result, the performance of the application will suffer in general, and the user always needs to wait for the data transmission each time.
Therefore, there is a need for improved techniques for managing image data on a terminal device (e.g., a set-top box) in order to display the image associated with each of the media programs without increasing cost and operation burdens on a subscriber/user and still providing satisfying experience.